Poverty of understanding

Love For Myanmar Ministries Update

Christ Centered, Servant Hearted, Myanmar Focused

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom has placed Myanmar among the world’s worst religious persecutors every year for 25 years.

Burma’s population consists of Buddhists (87.9 percent), Christians (6.2 percent), Muslims (4.3 percent), Animists (0.8 percent), and Hindus (0.5 percent). Although the constitution treats Buddhism as the de facto state religion while recognizing Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Animism, non-Buddhist religious and ethnic minorities face long standing persecution. In 2015, Burma passed race and religion laws with the support of hardline Buddhist nationalist groups such as the Ma Ba Tha. These laws regulate religious conversion, marriage, and births; they also restrict the religious freedom of non-Buddhists.

For example, one of the laws requires that a Myanmar citizen who wishes to change his/her religion must obtain approval from a newly established Registration Board for religious conversion, set up in townships. The person must also undergo an interview and engage in religious study for a period up to 180 days. The law prescribes punishments for forced conversion or for applying to convert with the intention of harming a religion.

• Prayer Request: (Myanmar coup day 1,391)
  Please pray that our staff, house church leaders, home directors, and volunteers carefully navigate the complicated political situation in Myanmar, and our humanitarian and evangelistic work continues to reach the hearts God has prepared to receive His message.

Our words and actions may reveal our heart for the poor and oppressed, but our God remains a stranger to many on this earth. We give food, clothing, shelter, medicines, but what of ourselves?

Is it enough to be the hands and feet of our God in this hurting world? Providing for the humanitarian needs of others is important, but isn’t it even more so to provide people with meaning for their lives, a purpose through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

Within our house church network, we address the “poverty of understanding” about Christianity. In a country 90% Buddhist, some of this poverty is attributable to willing blindness; however, no small portion is never being exposed to God’s purposes and promises. God is not unaware of or unmoved by the Myanmar people’s suffering. In fact, He is working through their poverty of hunger to address their poverty of understanding.

Amidst the chaos and corruption of Myanmar, God is accomplishing much through our house church network. A path to salvation and eternal life is being cleared for countless Buddhists who deserve to hear the whole truth of God’s word. God has placed our ministry in a country where individual freedoms are smothered within a culture of authoritarianism, matters of faith struggle to be expressed beyond the confines of one’s private life.

For our Fellowship Coordinators and house church leaders, it continues to be an exhausting journey. Nonetheless, they remain confident, calm, and secure in the knowledge that “What then shall we say of these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 Are you with us?

Gary Watkins, LFM Co-founder

God’s Evangelism Achievements this year within our ministry

• 81 baptisms
• 130,000 religious tracts personally distributed
• 720 personal visits to villages
• 96 communion ceremonies
• 78 meetings with local pastors
• 43 outreach events with 2,795 participants
• 64 discipleship training sessions
• 1,430 Sermons & Sunday School classes
• 114 Christian-based trauma healing sessions
• 260 Christian-based tutoring sessions for school-age children